Authorities in the Republic of Korea require cryptocurrency traders to show their identities

15 January 2018

According to Korean media reports, governmental authorities in South Korea issued a ruling to enforce introduction of identification for cryptocurrency accounts and discontinue anonymous deals with the digital assets. The report noted that the investors trading cryptocurrencies in the country should link their virtual accounts to their identities, otherwise they will be facing penalties imposed by the authorities.

The governmental agency reportedly allows traders to convert their digital asset accounts to verified accounts with traceable identification information before the end of this month, and in case they fail to comply with the new ruling, traders will be charged with fines, the amount whereof has not been yet explicitly formulated.

Other reports from South Korea also indicate that the governmental agencies eye to impose a ban on cryptocurrency trading as it was proposed by the justice minister, who drafted a plan to suspend operations of cryptocurrency exchanges on concerns of speculations featuring the market. The reports affected the trading with the cryptocurrency prices sliding down. However, the Office for Government Policy Coordination noted that the final decision is yet to be adopted by the government on a national level after consideration of views and thorough examination.

Meantime, politicians and public in the country expressed their negative response to the plan on suspending the cryptocurrency exchanges with over 100 thousand signatures collected for the petition requiring the government to abstain from passing the suspension decision.